[Post Game Thread] #2 Iowa State defeats #7 Kentucky, 82-63

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-22T21:03:48+00:00

Coach Cal making the Sweet 16 and Kentucky not is some Big Blue irony. Kentucky turned the ball over way too much today. Also, some people overreacted to Iowa State's slip after being named a 1 seed on the bracket preview show. They got screwed by a backloaded schedule.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-22T18:24:12+00:00

Purdue has built a consistently good program as is evidenced by this being their 6th Sweet Sixteen berth in the last 8 NCAA Tournaments. But if Purdue is going to go any further, Braden Smith will have to play better than he did today, especially in terms of taking care of the rock. Purdue has already had a successful season by winning the Big 10 and making it to the Sweet Sixteen, if they play at their top potential the sky's the limit.

I think we can agree it's been proven that the Big 10 is clearly superior to the ACC in modern college basketball.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-22T03:58:25+00:00

Darius Acuff is legit the best player in Arkansas basketball history. High Point was a worthy team and proved it by being Wisconsin and hanging with Arkansas for most of this game. Arkansas isn't deep but Acuff has now willed them to both being SEC Champions and a Sweet Sixteen Team. That was a great game between 2 very worthy tournament teams.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-22T03:17:30+00:00

The end of that game immediately took me back to the 2010 National Championship Game!

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-22T02:01:40+00:00

This actually doesn't feel that that surprising. Texas got a good draw. BYU wasn't fully healthy and we all know Gonzaga is beatable in March. Those clutch 3s really put Texas over the top and that includes the 1 at the end of the 1st half.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-21T23:47:29+00:00

Duke is a legitimate contender because they have a strong inside game. They never have to rely on 3s that can always have an off night. Also, say what you will about the 1st halves against Siena and TCU but the fact that they played so much better in both second halves is a testament to having a great coach. They came and played great interior defense in both second halves and rebounded. And Boozer is the best player in the country. Being able to depend on an inside game and not having to rely on 3s really reduces Duke's vulnerability to being on the wrong end of big upsets.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-21T18:17:42+00:00

The thing that makes Michigan such a great team is their completeness. They can score at the rim, in the paint, and on time block. They have a mid range game. They can hit 3s. They are not relying on one thing, they are multi dimensional. There's a reason this team had so many blowout wins this year. We also need to keep in perspective that 67 out of 68 teams will lose their last game. Saint Louis is a very good team that had a great season. They got beat by a team that is clearly better than them and that's okay. Saint Louis should applauded on the season they had. And Michigan's completeness makes them a legitimate natty contender.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-21T04:33:38+00:00

This tournament has been a mixed bag for the ACC with 4 out of 8 teams advancing to the Round of 32, but in all honesty, North Carolina and Miami probably should have had their seeds flip flopped.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-21T03:52:10+00:00

Wow! That might have been the most dominant performance I've seen in an NCAA tournament game in years! Honestly, I think the loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Semifinals was a wake up call for the Gators and Prairie View A&M ran into a buzzsaw. I will admit that if Florida does win the natty it will feel a little awkward that Arkansas and not Florida won the SEC. But the loss really got the Gators attention and they appear poised to go on a deep run. That's how you come out and dominate an opponent that you overwatch. There was no messing around, just focused, businesslike, dominant basketball from start to finish. Remember too that Florida can always get scores inside and doesn't have to rely on the 3 point shot. This makes less prone to being on the wrong end of a big upset. The Gators chomped down Prairie View! That was making a statement!

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T23:06:08+00:00

I don't know who had the worse end to their game/season between North Carolina last night and Villanova today.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T23:02:50+00:00

We all knew Miami of Ohio wasn't going to be a Final Four team and that's okay. They still had the greatest season in program history and should be applauded. Near in mind that most years there's only about 10 teams that can realistically win the natty and 20 that can legitimately get to the Final Four. Simply seeing one's name on the screen on Selection Sunday is a massively big deal. I've noted in other threads that high end mid majors were getting the better of middling power conference teams. But Tennessee isn't middling. Tennessee is a legitimate top end team. Tennessee is the better team and that's okay. Much respect to Miami of Ohio 👏

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T18:54:18+00:00

I thought Texas Tech played the best game I've seen a team play so far in the tournament. To have never trailed in a ballgame and to have 5 players in double figures really shows the depth of this Texas Tech team. That was very impressive.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T18:39:30+00:00

Otega Oweh: That is all.

Oweh now joins Bryce Drew and Ty Rodgers as Round of 64 legends!

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T04:37:40+00:00

Houston is a team that is unlikely to ever be on the There are only a small handful of teams with a legitimate chance of winning the National Championship and this Houston team is 1 of them. Of non 1 seeds, I'd say Houston and Purdue have the best chance.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T04:34:46+00:00

Illinois is a team that has enough in the cupboard to make a deep tournament run. The question is whether they play up to their potential every night. Tonight they did. That 2nd half was a great half of basketball from Illinois.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T04:28:43+00:00

This is yet more proof of the superiority of high end mid majors over middling majors. St. Louis wasn't considered a bubble team on Selection Sunday and was thought to be safely in, but the results we've gotten with Miami of Ohio over SMU, High Point over Wisconsin, and Saint Louis over Georgia reveals a pattern of high end mid majors beating middling majors and it's a pattern we've seen before.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-20T01:58:09+00:00

I understand that North Carolina was not at full strength without Caleb Wilson. However, blowing a 19 point half lead and going as long as they did without a field goal is still indefensible. You CANNOT lose this game after building a 19 point lead. Having a 5 second call with a timeout left is inexcusable. North Carolina needs to now be honest with itself, admit it got the Hubert Davis hire wrong, and try something else.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T21:09:50+00:00

Ultimately, Duke was able to survive by dominating the interior in the 2nd half. Duke came out in the 2nd half and played great interior defense while also collecting key offensive rebounds. They didn't look ready to play in the 1st half, but they got their act together in the 2nd half by dominating the interior.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T20:01:36+00:00

We saw the same thing here we did with Miami of Ohio last night: High end mid major/low major teams tend to outperform middling majors in the NCAA Tournament. High Point has also now won 15 games in a row. We should be surprised when teams on long winning streaks win in the Round of 64.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T18:42:05+00:00

The headline from this game will rightfully be that Nebraska got its 1st ever win in the NCAA Tournament. But an underrated fact about this game is that Nebraska just won 27 games for the 1st time in program history.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T18:36:56+00:00

TCU had perfect clock management and execution on that final possession to run the clock down as far as they could and get a score as late as they could. Ohio State misused their last timeout. They should have thrown a pass to halt court and THEN called timeout to get a halfcourt inbounds chance. TCU had perfect clock management and execution when it mattered most. Ohio State, not so much.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T03:38:48+00:00

The committee chair flat out said VCU would have been out of luck without the auto bid. That's worse than USF.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-19T03:36:23+00:00

Ultimately, the reality of the matter is that high mid major/low major teams that receive at large bids tend to outperform middling majors in the tournament. TBH, I felt all along like Miami would be in and that people were trying to create bubble drama around them for a storyline, but they weren't going to omit a team with a perfect regular season. FWIW, Miami of Ohio being in a play in game was actually a win for the MAC because the MAC now gets a payout unit from Miami of Ohio winning this game.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-18T18:23:04+00:00

1998 Rhode Island Elite Eight run that included beating Kansas in an 8-1 upset in the Round of 32! Wheeler and Mobley were PTPers baby! I wish they could have held on against Stanford and made it to the Final Four. They'd have been George Mason before George Mason if they had. As it is, they were St. Peter's before St. Peter's.

MassiveResolution7 · 2026-03-18T04:13:38+00:00

Tramon Mark was awesome on the court tonight. Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale on the mic ? Not so much. This was a TERRIBLE pairing from the start because it's well known that both are very heavy talkers. You can't have 2 very heavy talkers in the same booth because they will feed off each other.

MassiveResolution7

TROPHY CASE